Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

To: Dick Vomer
It didn’t work out so well for them last time.

The idea that Finland defeated the Soviets an amazingly persistent myth. The fact is that the Finns did bloody the Russians' noses in the early phases of the war, but in the end the sheer weight of numbers (and some command reforms of the purge-ravaged Red Army)could not be withstood. The Finns sued for peace and in the Treaty of Moscow, ceded 11% of their national territory, representing about 30% of their economic resources, to the USSR. They had to give 75 locomotives and 2000 rail cars. They had to give ships and trucks. They had to give something like a third of their hydroelectric generating capacity and one of their largest industrial complexes. The war worked out very well for the Russians, except for the bunch of people killed. And when did the Russians ever care about that?

16 posted on 03/31/2014 11:23:11 AM PDT by Bubba Ho-Tep ("More weight!"--Giles Corey)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies ]


To: Bubba Ho-Tep
had an odd experience. Spoke to a Finnish immigrant in Florida whose children ended up going to same school. He talked about the rifle his grandfather kept on display over the fireplace that he used to kill Russians. Said that they killed a bunch of them over an ice lake and the survivors that chased them were killed by following them into valleys that they used for ambushes and avalanches.

I think you're right in one respect that the Russians don't care about casualties...or didn't. The fellow I talked to had been in the army for over a year because he said he was an officer and everybody HAD to join the Army. I think he was in one of their infantry units because the guy shot very well and seemed to enjoy his time at the range. He said his father had taught him to shoot when he was 5-6 years old by hunting rabbits.

My point was that the Finns don't think they "lost" but that they just outlasted the Russians and made them bleed. That's the impression that I got from him. He also hated the Russians, even the immigrant ones here in the US..... hate really is about the nicest emotion he displayed where Russians were concerned.

It's going to be tough to see Russian tanks or APC's rolling through the Finnish country side without collecting a couple of rounds.

29 posted on 03/31/2014 12:17:05 PM PDT by Dick Vomer (democrats are like flies, whatever they don't eat they sh#t on.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 16 | View Replies ]

To: Bubba Ho-Tep; Texas Fossil
The Russians are not going into Finland. As you point out, they re-drew the boundary to their satisfaction after WWII. If they wanted it, they would have taken it then.

Finland was never absorbed into the Russian Empire as were the Baltics or Ukraine. It was mostly self-governing.

31 posted on 03/31/2014 12:19:08 PM PDT by colorado tanker
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 16 | View Replies ]

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article


FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson